The Song of Time
by Crystal Rose of Pollux
Summary: Sequel to Somewhere Back in Time. The Monkees find themselves under siege again by Zero, who is out to guarantee his victory once and for all by rewriting their future. With everything falling apart around them, the quartet will have to struggle just to stay together... leading to some desperate measures, from both sides.
1. What About Tomorrow?

_Notes: The characters aren't mine, and the story is! This is the final installment in the Zero Trilogy (taking place a few months after "Somewhere Back in Time"), and will be full of feels from start to finish! And as you can see from this first chapter, I firmly believe that the girl in the beginning of _Head_ had something to do with Zero…_

_Also, in regards to updates; I don't know how frequently this will be updated for now; I'm part-way through a project in another fandom, but I'll try to update this when I can. When my other project is finished, I will return to my usual Sunday updates for this one—thanks for your patience!_

* * *

**Malibu, CA, somewhere in the near future:**  
A young woman glumly walked down a back alley. Her charms had failed her; not only had she been left by her alleged boyfriend, but any and all other attempts at romance had ended in failure for her.

She was angry and bitter; admittedly, she didn't know who to blame. But she felt as though she had to blame someone.

A strange light in the sky jolted her from her thoughts. She glanced up, seeing an odd opening in the sky. A piece of paper floated out of it, just before the opening closed up again. The old, tattered page floated by her head, and she quickly snatched it in midair, glancing at it with halfhearted interest.

"The Book of Ages?" she murmured aloud. "What is that supposed to mean? And who are Davy, Mike, Micky, and Peter?"

"It means," a voice said. "That you have found something that is very valuable to both myself and to a quartet of musicians who need to be taught a lesson."

The woman looked up, startled, surprised to see a someone standing there in a suit.

"Who are you?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

A card appeared in the being's hand, which he handed to the woman.

"Mr. Zero, Salesman," she read. "What do you sell?"

"Anything and everything you desire," Zero said. "I own a small pawn shop in town, but it's really just a front for a much larger establishment."

"…Uh-huh…" she said, not convinced.

"Right now, though, you have something _I_ need," Zero continued. "That paper you just picked up."

"This Book of Ages thing?" she asked. "What's it to you?"

Zero's eyes narrowed malevolently.

"Victory."

"And what can you give me in exchange for it?" she asked, not about to let this opportunity pass.

"Oh, I see you're quite the entrepreneur yourself," Zero said. "How very shrewd. Well, as I said, I can offer you anything you wish."

"That's not possible."

"There is nothing that is impossible for me," Zero promised. "And my knowledge is vast. For example, I know that your current predicament."

"Oh, do you?" she scoffed.

"And I can propose a deal that will make both of us happy," Zero continued. A contract appeared in his hand. "Give me that paper, and I will bestow upon you the gift of the Kiss of Doom."

"The what?"

"The Kiss of Doom. Those who are subjected to the Kiss of Doom will experience a curse of ill fortune until you decide to free them from its effects."

"And you're willing to give me this power for this piece of paper?" she asked.

"On one condition," Zero said. "The four musicians you read about in that piece of paper? I want them to be the first four recipients of your Kiss of Doom."

The woman glanced at the paper, and then at the contract. She had taken notice of how Zero had made it appear in midair. Perhaps there was something to his words… And it was a small price to pay.

"Alright," she said, and she took the pen from him and signed the paper. "You've got yourself a deal."

Zero smirked.

"You'll find all four of them waiting at 1334 Beechwood Drive," he said, taking the pen back from her.

"Then that's where I'm heading," she said, handing the page from the Book of Ages. "We'll see if this Kiss of Doom thing works."

"Oh, it will," Zero said, clutching the page in his fist. "It most certainly will."

And as she turned and left, heading for Beechwood Drive, Zero's smirk grew. He used the pen to write in the page from the Book of Ages, his eyes glittering with malice with every word he wrote.

At last… at long last… his victory was guaranteed.

* * *

**Chapter 1: What About Tomorrow?**

**Malibu, CA, present day:**  
In the alcove of 1334 Beechwood Drive, a woolhat-wearing Texan had just completed his task of tuning his guitar.

"There we go…" he said, pleased with his handiwork. "Now, all we gotta do is practice our set until…"

The Texan trailed off as he realized that there was no one in the alcove.

"Hey, where'd you guys go?"

He looked around, and then rolled his eyes as he saw that his bandmates were sound asleep; a short brunet boy was curled up on the backless couch, a blond boy was sprawled over the armchair, and another brunet boy, taller than the first one, had set up the hammock. All three of them were lightly snoring.

Quietly, the Texan placed his guitar down and removed two of the cymbals from the drum kit. He walked over to the center of the room, and with one quick movement, slammed the two cymbals together.

The effects were instantaneous—and exactly what he had hoped for. The short one was launched from the backless couch as though he had accidentally rolled onto a pin; the blond, in his haste to scramble away from whatever was the source of that noise, ended up falling out of the armchair. And the brunet in the hammock let out a yell as his sudden movements caused the hammock to tip, depositing him unceremoniously onto the floor.

"Rise and shine," the Texan drawled.

"…Don't do that," the short one said, in a Manchester accent.

"Miiiiiiiiike!" the hammock-tossed one yelped. "How could use my own cymbals against me!?"

"Like this, Mick," Mike replied, clashing them together again.

The blond quickly rushed over to him and snatched them away.

"We heard you the first time," he said, with a good-natured smile. "Here you go, Micky."

Micky gratefully took the cymbals back.

"Thanks, Pete."

Peter just grinned, and then looked to the short English boy, who was now standing with his arms folded.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" he accused Mike.

"Well, Davy, I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't been waiting for a chance to try that," Mike admitted. "But now that y'all are up, how about practicing for that gig we've got in a few days?"

"Come on, Mike," Micky said, as he placed his cymbals back in their proper places. "It's not like these songs are anything new to us."

"Yeah, but we've gotta make sure we've got them down perfectly," Mike insisted. "If we do well with this club gig, the manager said he's going to hire us for the whole summer. Do I need to remind you what that means?"

"No, but say it again anyway," Peter said.

Mike smirked.

"_Steady income_."

"Beautiful…" Davy said, with mock applause. "Just beautiful."

"Isn't it, though?" Mike said. "Now, I'm not saying that we don't have what it takes already to get it. But it can't hurt to practice, can it?"

"Guess not," Micky said, playing a warm-up rhythm on the drums.

Davy and Peter soon took their places, and Mike joined them, picking up his beloved blond guitar.

"Hey, Davy, do you and Micky think you can be finished with that tune you two were working on for the gig?"

"If we can come up with some lyrics, yeah," Davy said. "We still can't decide on what it's supposed to be about."

"But we've got a _great_ instrumental piece, in the meantime," Micky said.

"Yeah, well… An instrumental piece isn't going to cut it for this crowd. So, I guess we'll start off with 'Clarksville' for now and move down the usual setlist from there," he said. "On four, then. One, two, thr—"

The phone chose to ring at that particular moment.

"_Gatdangit_," the Texan hissed. He forced himself to be polite as he picked up the phone. "This is 1334 Beechwood; how can we help you?" He frowned.

"What is it?" Peter asked.

"Line's all fuzzy; I can barely hear whoever's talking. Hello? _Hello_?" He sighed and hung up. "We got cut off."

"You couldn't tell who it was?" Micky asked.

"It sounded like a chick."

"Oh, it must have been for Davy, then…" Peter said.

Davy gave a lopsided smile.

"Well, either you've got it, or you haven't…"

"Think you can lend it?" Micky asked.

"Alright, alright," Mike said. "Back to work, then. One, two, thr—"

He was cut off again, this time by a puff of smoke, and the appearance of an all-too-familiar figure.

"…_You_," Mike said, scowling at Zero. "Man, you never quit, do you?"

It had been months since their last encounter with Zero—back when he had tried to rewrite their past. Though the quartet knew that Zero would be far from finished, the ensuing weeks of peace and quiet (well, as quiet as it could be for them) had been so blissful that they had been hoping that it had all, at last, been behind them.

Clearly, that was not the case. Still, it didn't stop Mike's bandmates from standing by his side, determined that they would not let any harm come to him.

"How astute of you, Nesmith," Zero said. "You're right—I don't quit. But the four of you might as well wave the white flag right now."

"Awwww, come on!" Micky said. "You know us better than that by now! We're not gonna quit just because you pop up here and blow a little smoke around!"

"You don't seem to understand, Dolenz," Zero said. "The battle is over. I win."

"Just what do you mean by that!?" Davy demanded.

"This," Zero said, waving the page from the Book of Ages at them. "You recognize this, I take it?"

Peter gasped.

"The missing page!"

The quartet had traveled through time and space to retrieve missing pages from the Book of Ages; they had recovered all but one, which had been floating around in the Time Vortex.

"Do you know what's on this page?" Zero asked. "It's your future. And I've made the necessary edits to ensure my victory." He smirked again when he saw the horrified looks on the musicians' faces. "I have come here, Gentlemen, to give you some advice, which I suggest that you take: enjoy what little time you have left with each other."

And, with that, he vanished in another puff of smoke.


	2. Who's Gonna Win Out?

Notes: apologies for how short and lackluster this chapter is, but this is literally all I could come up with in the past two and a half weeks. My schedule has become _extremely _busy and it's promising to stay that way; and as much as I want to update this weekly, _I just can't anymore_. I owe my readers more than rushed, short chapters like this; so bear with me on this. I want to give my readers quality chapters, so _please_ understand if updates take some time. This fic is one of my pet projects right now, so it will _not_ be abandoned.

* * *

Panic filled the interior of 1334 Beechwood.

"Whatta we do!? _Whatta we do_!?" Micky yelled, shaking Peter by the shoulders. "We're doomed! Done for!"

"I don't know!" Peter said, as Micky shook him. "But we'll get through it—we always do!"

"How!?" Micky asked.

"Well…. Mike will find out a way, right?" Peter said, with a hopeful grin. "Mike? Miiiiiiiiiiiike?"

"I… uh… um…" the Texan stammered, running a hand through his hair. "I just… I just need a moment to think…"

"What difference does it make?" a fourth voice asked.

Mike, Peter, and Micky all froze and turned to see Davy. The English boy looked absolutely broken as he stared out the window.

"Davy…?" Mike asked, softly.

The little percussionist looked back at Mike.

"It doesn't matter what we do now," Davy said. "Zero rewrote our future—and he's running around with the page from the Book of Ages. He can be making a few more final edits right now—just to make sure that we're _really_ miserable."

"Hey…" Mike said, placing his hands on Davy's shoulders. "Don't you talk like that. You just heard what Peter said, didn't you? We always find a way out of these things. Because we've got something Zero can never have—our power. It's the power we get from each other; he's got nothing on that."

"But now he's got something we don't have too—the power to change events!" Davy said. "If he writes us having a falling out or getting separated or who-knows-what, we won't have our power anymore!"

"Davy…" Mike said. "Look at me."

The English boy sighed and turned to face him.

"You know I always keep my promises to you and the others," the Texan said. "I'm not going to let the three of you suffer. I'm gonna see to it that you three are going to be alright, no matter what."

But Davy didn't look at all pleased.

"Once again, you've neglected yourself," he said. "I know what you're planning, Mike—you're planning to make a deal with him, aren't you?"

"Mike, you can't!" Peter exclaimed, shocked.

"Now, wait a minute…" the Texan said.

"Don't 'wait a minute' me," Davy said, darkly. "I know the way your mind works; I've been your roommate long enough. You're going to try to get us all out of it—I know you will. But when that fails, you're going to fall back on making a deal with Zero to make sure that the three of us are alright."

"You know what that means for you, though, right!?" Micky asked. "I mean… He's going to want nothing less than your soul!"

"And you'd give it to him," Davy said.

"Look," Mike said. "I gotta look out for you guys."

"Not at this price," Davy said. "Never at this price. I don't understand you sometimes, Mike."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked. "You expect me to believe that if it was you standing here in my shoes, you wouldn't be at least considering it, too? Don't try to say that you wouldn't."

"I'm not," Davy said. "But it's not something that I could go through with. I just have this horrible feeling that you actually would."

"Well, let me reassure you by saying that this is not an option I want to resort to," Mike insisted. "I'm not crazy about Zero, and I sure would hate to spend eternity with him. I'd much rather pal around with y'all."

"But you'd still do it, even though you don't want to," Davy said.

"Look; I'm the one in charge here. That means I'm the one who has to handle the unpleasant things that happen to us—and I gotta make all the tough decisions. Most of all, I gotta look after you guys."

"We look out for each other, Mike," Peter said.

"Yeah, man," Micky said. "I know you think you've got an obligation to look after us since you're the leader and everything… But you gotta let us stick our necks out for you sometimes."

"Is isn't even about that right now," Davy said. "It's about all of us trying to get through this—and I think we've hit the one time we won't be able to."

"Don't say that!" Mike ordered. "I'm going to do the best I can to see us all through this. And I think we can at least make a start by trying to get that last page from the Book of Ages back. Once we get it, we can figure out how to undo whatever it is Zero did when he rewrote the page."

"There's just one problem with that," Davy sighed. "Do you remember what Professor Song said about that book? About how Zero was one of very few people who can change it without causing time and space to fall apart? She said that he can decide what parts of time can be changed."

"Ah, but that's the beauty of it," Mike said. "If he's making changes to the page now, then it means he's allowing that part of time to be changeable. So we gotta snatch that page and make the changes before be makes them un-changeable again."

"You make it sound so simple…" Davy said. "Exactly how do you plan on getting the page from him?"

The Texan glanced at the English boy.

"Come on, Davy," he said, softly. "It's not like you to lose faith like this. What's going on?"

Davy looked away, back out the window, looking at the vast expanse of ocean on the horizon.

"I'm tired," he confessed. "Tired of always being hounded by Zero. He's never going to quit—never. Even if we do win this, he'll just come up with something else. It's never going to end. And I'm tired of it."

"But you can't give up!" Peter cried, horrified to see Davy in the throes of admitting defeat. "That's what he wants—if you give up without a fight, we have no hope. If we fight back, we've at least got a chance!"

"Do we even have a chance now?" Davy asked.

"Heck yeah, we do!" Micky said. "But not if you're gonna just sit there and wait for Zero to finish up!"

Mike now walked around Davy so that he was facing him again, and he placed his hands back on his shoulders.

"They're right," he said. "We've got the power, but it's useless if we don't use it. I'm the guy in charge, yeah. But you help keep us together. And we need you now more than ever, Tiny."

Davy blinked.

"So, what do you say?" Mike continued, softly. "We need your help. I know the chips are down, and I'm not perfect, but I'm willing to try. Are you willing to give me a chance, at least?"

"Does this chance include all four of us making it out of this?" Davy asked, after thinking about it.

Mike bit his lip.

"You need to promise me, Mike," Davy said. "You need to promise me that it's going to be all four of us, together, until the end." He gave a slight smile. "You know what I'm asking for, don't you?"

A slight twitch of a smile crossed the Texan's face, as well.

"A vow," he said.

"And I'm gonna hold you to that vow, you know that, right?" Davy said, echoing the words Mike once asked him some time ago.

"Yeah, I know," Mike said. "Okay, then—let's make it official…"

He placed his hand out in front of him, and, one by one, the others placed their hands on top of Mike's.

"All of us or none of us?" Davy asked.

Mike nodded.

"All of us or none of us."

Micky and Peter echoed the words.

"Alright," Mike said. "Now that we've settled that, let's get down to work."


End file.
